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Finally finished

12-21-2008, 06:45 PM

I started this project for a friend who is a coach at a 1A high school at the end of September. Spent most of October travelling and couldn't get on it much. Had a friend help out and drill the almost 6,000 holes. I think we used 3-4 3/16" bits for piloting and only 1 11/16" hole cutter to get them to size. Spent another eternity painting them (next time I will insist on powdercoat). The upholstery classes I took in high school came in handy on the benches. Delivered and set up everything in 1/2day. Picked up some additional work for next year as his budget allows. Enjoy

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just outta curiosity, whats the deal with the 43 different height adjustments per each rack? I checked my gym tonight after i read this and there are only 7 per each side? Is it specialized for something? I'm just wondering cause i've never seen so many holes on a squat rack or smith machine or whatever it is?

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I am a competitive powerlifter, as is the coach who ordered these racks. One of the methods we use to get stronger is focusing on where we are weak at. For example, on the deadlift, a person may be able to get 700+ lbs. off the floor but stalls at the knees. One exercise to work on this would be to set the pins at knee level and set the bar on them and work the top end of the movement. The spacing at the top and Bottom is 2" center to center and the middle area is 1". The tight spacing allows precise height adjustment. When I tracel and have to train at a commercial gym that has minimal adjustments, I am either doing a 1/4 squat or a calf raise to get it out of the racks. Not much fun when playing with the heavy weights. Kind of like comparing an off brand welder to a Miller, They both will work to do the job but the Miller will do a much better job.

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Very nice work! I bet your friend won't look at a drill press for a while!

Dave

It took him 7 minutes to drill the pilot holes using a jig and an additional 7 minutes per side with the hole cutter. Total time including changing the bits, clamping the jig etc, each piece took 24 minutes. Of course there was 48 pieces. . .

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Nice job and work !
Not knowing the wall thickness of your square tubing.
I will say this though ,being of a engineering background.
you could have a safety problem with the adjustment holes that close.
The tubings lateral strength could be a problem with extreme weight above the fine hole adjustment.

I'm sure you thought of it though before building
again nice work .
Rich

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Love the power of Blue
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Lots of Tools!

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Nice job and work !
Not knowing the wall thickness of your square tubing.
I will say this though ,being of a engineering background.
you could have a safety problem with the adjustment holes that close.
The tubings lateral strength could be a problem with extreme weight above the fine hole adjustment.

I'm sure you thought of it though before building
again nice work .
Rich

it is 11ga tubing. we have the exact rack in our gym and have had no problems. we use the rack pretty heavily so I am comfortable that it will hold up. with it being tubing, the safety pin would be in a quasi double shear at each upright. The safety pins and rod for the J-hooks are 5/8" CR.

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I typically powdercoat almost all of my pieces. The black pieces in this one are a black wrinkle powder. The coach had a set amount of funds to work with hence the paint. It definitely would have been a lot easier though. The one advantage of paint is he can go to Home Cheapo and get a rattle can of rustoleum white to touch things up.

All future racks will be powder, I know where my strengths are and painting isn't at the top of that list